Things to do before you're 40

Gosh. Where to start. A few things: I've watched the sunrise at the top of Mount Sinai. I completed the London marathon in a respectable 4:30. I've swum with a dolphin with no-one else around (apart from Franny). And I've finally conquered zips! Hurrah!

The other thing I've been spouting off about to anyone that'll listen is having my own business by the time I'm 40. Well would you know, it's my 40th birthday tomorrow. And whilst I may not have a thriving business, I'm making a good start. I didn't know how to sew a year and a half ago, and I feel proud that I've got to a point where I feel able to go out into the world and say, "This is my work. I hope you enjoy it." You can find the beginnings of my etsy shop here. I'll be stocking some quilts and further utility items over the next few weeks.







I'd like to say thank you to everyone that has supported me and told me to go for it. My creative space is buzzing. And it's mostly down to support from this lot over at Our Creative Spaces. Thanks guys ;-)

Haberdashery and cake? Sign me up!

On a tip off from "Katy Who Knows Literally Everything" at my day job, I wandered down Essex Road, Islington on Friday and found Ray Stitch. A place where pleasant folk hang out, it turns out. Behind the counter, or drinking lattes outside in the morning sunshine, everyone was super cheery and just lovely friendly.



And of course, the winning combo of cake and haberdashery cannot be beaten. Thrilled to have another sewing mecca so close to home. However, due to vast quantities of champagne drunk last weekend I am seriously broke, so I couldn't buy anything.







They stock some very lovely organic cottons, a good range of useful haberdashery and the usual Amy whatserface quilting cottons (can take or leave them if I'm prefectly honest) but they also had that very cool sewing utility brand Merchant & Mills.



The packaging is just heavenly. I love the graphic black and white and utility feel. So much craft stuff is girly and twee and this is brilliantly masculine and I was tempted to buy and just display the packaging at home. Alas, that will have to wait until pay day.

The brand came onto my radar just the other day when I stumbled upon Not Another Bill; an excellent idea to have a bit of creative stimulation through your letter box every month. The idea is that you pay £15 a month and get sent something gorgeous. Check it out, past presents have looked amazing. I reckon it would make a lovely gift for someone for 6 months or so. Just lovely.

Exactly what have I been up to?!

Crickey. Nearly a whole month since my last post. But I haven't been slacking - no! I have mostly been sitting in a jacuzzi drinking champagne :-) It will soon be my 40th birthday and I decided that the only way to celebrate was to get my buddies together in the same place for much merriment. We went to a lovely converted barn in Holt Norfolk and spent a long weekend on the beach, in the garden, and in the jacuzzi! Such excellent fun and a massive treat to have everyone together hanging out. B-rilliant.

The barn we were staying in even had my initials on the outside. Wierd.



There were some fine quilts on the wall, which I meant to photograph properly, but in the end the only evidence of them was this photo - a bit of Daddy daycare:



The Magnificent Mum has a beach hut and lent it to us for the day:



And of course, The HusWife and Patrice felt utterly compelled to wear my running shorts and do a spot of old fashioned gentleman's athletics:



And Becci cooked me a most delicious and chocolately birthday cake:



Hurrah! And hurrah again for great times with great friends! Other photos over on flickr

Feeling proper cream crackered now

Last fair of the summer finally done and dusted! I was lucky enough to get a spot at the Burnham Market Craft Fair, a lovely place in Norfolk. Full of lovely people too it turns out. It was all exceptionally well organised and the weather was glorious all day with just some overcast threat of rain towards the end.



The Magnificent Mum (just spotted rearranging quilts in the background) had done a great job of whipping up her crowd of friends into a crafting frenzy about the day, and they all popped down, said hello, and bought something.

And Big Sis (with the lovely red accents to the right) did a fine job of being The Helper Of Excellence and Most Fine Wrapper Of Products.

The hot product of the day was Kindle sleeves - oh and small purses, but a new addition of evening bags also did rather well, only the wintry colours left by the end. Note to self: put more summery colours in products for summer fairs!





Scored a couple of commissions and had some very interesting chats about boro cloth (more on that to come) and Gee's Bend and recycling fabric and so on. Brill. Here are some of the quilts Mum and I had readied for the stall - there was a lot of interest in them, but no sales, so perhaps not the right product for a fair.





So, thrilled to have done it but glad it's over! Looking forward to getting my online shop sorted in the next few weeks and then getting on with some art sewing. Not sure what direction I'm going to go in, but it's definitely time for experimentation again rather than product making. Excited doesn't go anywhere near expressing how I feel about the coming months :-)

Crisis averted.

So, the boys are away and I woke at 6:30 this morning and thought I may as well get up and get cracking on the old sewing. Big plans to make a bunch of evening bags today you see. Anyhoo, after 2 hours of red hot machine action, suddenly it all went wrong. Massive thread jam that continued despite cleaning the innards = massive frustration and thought, "Mmmm haven't oiled it in a while." Couldn't find the machine oil could I? No. Hadn't put it anywhere sensible had I? No. Considered googling the problem (not the location of my oil, obv) but then picked up the phone to The Magnificent Mum.

She had the solution. Of course she did. I didn't realise that there was a secret button inside the bobbin area that lifted the entire top section of the machine off. I was presented with 1.5 years worth of fabric fluff and dust. Yuck. Then she suggested a squirt of WD40 "...as it's reasonably pure, darling..." and after some running of the machine with no thread all was good as new.

Note to self: Take better care of your tools Simmons. Oh, and send Mum flowers just for being brilliant.

A bit of time out with the fellas.

Have mostly been holidaying with my dudes in Devon for the last week. In the rain, mostly. But hell, it matters not as we had a lovely time. Hurrah for holidays in the rain!



There was the odd cloud parting moment, and I (along with the rest of Devon) naturally bared all as quickly as possible. And now I have comedy sunburn stripes down the left hand side of both legs and a zorro mark across the middle of my tummy. I will never learn.



Look how mental the beach got?! Loving the stripey colours of summer though - blue, red, yellow. Might use it as inspiration for my next denim quilt ;-)

In other news, a massive amount of making about to take place as the boys are leaving for the west country for 3 days, and I am to be left home alone. I'll miss them LOADS as we've been in each others pockets for 10 days but I'm also reaaally looking forward to time spent crafting. And not tidying up my craft. And eating girl food. And maybe having a sneaky lie in too.

My distraction is finished!

Last week I could do nothing but sew bits of denim together despite there being quite a few more pressing things on my to do list. I've got it out of my system now though and here is the glory and splendour that is my third denim quilt:





I really don't mean to sound boasty and ego driven when I say that, but I just love how this one has turned out. I'm really enjoying how the scraps of fabric work together with the denim and the lovely Japanese cotton for the binding helps to soften the look of something that is quite functional. (Incidentally, might I suggest that hand sewing binding in the park, in the middle of a heatwave is not to be recommended. I've ended up with most ridiculous comedy suntan across my legs and arms!)





So, this one has turned out completely different to the two that preceeded it and I've no doubt the next one will be different again. I really like this freeform way of making quilts, using the mighty Gee's Bend quilts as a starting principle; using up what you've got, every scrap (pockets and all), and piecing as you go along.

Anyhow, here are the other two quilts that started this obsession:





And here are lovely things to look at over at Our Creative Spaces.